somethingbad wrote:Is the suicide real could almost be a separate thread. I want to say the suicide is not real because that would sit more comfortably with the rest of my current thinking but to me the suicide looks like a real event, springing out of Diane’s deranged daydreams and merging with her hallucinations.

This puzzle has been looked at before, but not for a while, and not by this board. So let’s look at the final scenes and sequence of the film and poke at it and look at the possibilities. Let’s go from the point at which we cut back to Diane on her sofa following the The Bum after the Diane/Joe Winkies scene (edit: or thinking about it, back to the point where we drift from Winkie's round to the back with the Bum playing with the cube), to the final utterance of ‘Silencio’ from the Blue-haired Lady.

I have in the past argued that everything up until the moment that Diane sticks the gun in her mouth and pulls the trigger is the world through her eyes. A hugely distressed young lady suffering hallucinations/visions and being chased to her death bed by terrifying figures of the past.

People have asked the question of how a ‘real’ scene can be immediately followed by such a ‘surreal’ scene with the smoke and merge into Silencio and the girls over LA etc. That’s used as ammunition to say that we must still be in some kind of dream/fantasy being experienced by a third party, or by Diane herself still dreaming.

My suggestion for the scenes immediately following the suicide is that they exist in a different place to the rest of the film. That’s not to say that it’s some kind of paranormal/supernatural explanation. More that to say Lynch has been playing with the language of film so spectacularly in the previous 2hrs20mins that some of the normal rules do not apply here. If you’ve noticed the way that similar ideas and concepts have been surfacing and then submerging in the film, it’s almost like a piece of music with certain movements coming and going and repeating and spinning round.

So on the music idea, I think that the final sequence can be considered a coda of sorts. I particularly like these definition that I found of a coda, and the way that it fits with MD and that sequence:

a concluding musical section that is formally distinct from the main structure

a concluding section or part, esp. one of a conventional form and serving as a summation of preceding themes, motifs, etc., as in a work of literature or drama.

Now, that’s quite an abstract explaining away of those scenes.

Another argument might be that the sequence is part of a dream, and those close-ups of Diane’s eye flickering shut as she sits on the couch is a clue that she’s drifting off again into dreamland on the couch.

it’s almost like a piece of music with certain movements coming and going and repeating and spinning round

the sequence is part of a dream, and those close-ups of Diane’s eye flickering shut as she sits on the couch is a clue that she’s drifting off again into dreamland on the couch.

These two statements were an eye opener for me. Though I see them as follows:

The flickering of Diane's eyes, while on the couch and while bright light flicks like lightening, is a sign that she is beginning to wake up. This entire film was a dream, including her suicide.

The movement you speak of, coming and going, spinning round, etc. along with the images of Betty and Rita, strongly resemble the jitterbug sequence we see at the beginning of the film. But in this final sequence, Betty is no longer standing front and center without a partner.

The jitterbug scene signals the beginning of a dream, along with the fall into a pillow (which is really just someone waking for a second to move to another position on the bed). The scene at the end with Betty and Rita signals the end of the dream, along with the blue-haired lady declaring "Silencio".

Pink (the pillow) signaled the beginning and blue (the blue hair) signaled the end.

In the scene with Diane on the coach, eyes flickering, the lightening is blue because the blue lightening is a signal that the end is approaching. The end of the dream.

The movement you speak of, coming and going, spinning round, etc. along with the images of Betty and Rita, strongly resemble the jitterbug sequence we see at the beginning of the film. But in this final sequence, Betty is no longer standing front and center without a partner.

I hadn't made the connection with Betty and Rita superimposed over L.A/Hollywood at the end and Betty superimposed over the Jitterbug dancers at the start. I think it's a great way to connect the two scenes and everything that happens inbetween them. The Jitterbug scene is not as perfect for Betty as it first appears because the girl is still missing. At the end she truly has her perfect scene with the girl, Rita.

It could strengthen the argument that we are still in a dream at the end sequence, after the gun shot? Or maybe it suggests that the Jitterbug scene is not part of a dream and nor are the final shots of Rita and Betty part of a dream.

I've sometimes thought that the end is the way it is because it just fits and is Lynch giving Diane/Betty her 15 seconds of fame over Hollywood. I also think this might fit with the Coda theory? It's a little reward for Diane and the audience and Lynch himself after the trauma he's taken us all through for over two hours. And that's fine until the Blue Haired Lady says, "Silencio". I could see it fitting as a Coda where Lynch is tying everything up after the story's real end with the gunshot by using some of the imagery/characters from the main story to create a more fitting end.

I think Lynch has often been quite sentimental in final scenes in his films compared to what has come before them. EG. Wild At Heart, FWWM and recently Inland Empire. After all Betty and the blonde version of Rita are the 2 people who were clearly told, "It's all an Illusion."

I've also thought that the post-gun shot scene, probably more than any other in the film could benefit from an understanding of Transcendental Meditation, of which Lynch is a follower - I am not :-)

somethingbad wrote:I've sometimes thought that the end is the way it is because it just fits and is Lynch giving Diane/Betty her 15 seconds of fame over Hollywood. I also think this might fit with the Coda theory? It's a little reward for Diane and the audience and Lynch himself after the trauma he's taken us all through for over two hours. And that's fine until the Blue Haired Lady says, "Silencio". I could see it fitting as a Coda where Lynch is tying everything up after the story's real end with the gunshot by using some of the imagery/characters from the main story to create a more fitting end.

(my emphasis)

That David is allowing the viewer a moment to reflect on the last 2hrs 20mins is definitely one reason for its inclusion. I would definitely agree with that. I think that the sequence serves more than one purpose, but that's one of them for sure.

somethingbad wrote:I've also thought that the post-gun shot scene, probably more than any other in the film could benefit from an understanding of Transcendental Meditation, of which Lynch is a follower - I am not :-)

Would be interested if any practioners had thoughts on this. Doesn't necessarily strike me as something connected (I could be wrong!) beyond the peace that seems to exist after the gunshot through to "Silencio".